A Warriner To Tempt Her. Virginia Heath
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is doing well.’ A safer topic and one Bella could manage without palpitations.
‘The inflammation is almost gone and there has been no sign of a raised temperature for a whole day now,’ she said.
‘I think we should keep him in the infirmary for at least another day. Little boys tend to pass on illnesses in the dormitories and we don’t want any more cases of quinsy if we can help it.’
We.
He kept referring to the patient as theirs, as if they shared the responsibility of his treatment, and that warmed her. He recognised her part in Tom’s recovery and her place in the infirmary. Recognised it and acknowledged it. ‘I shall check on him on Monday, and if he continues to make rapid progress, we can send him back to be with his friends.’
‘He’s very bored.’ Now that the crisis had passed, Tom wanted constant entertaining. She had read him every book on the little bookshelf. Some of them twice.
‘Excellent news. Bored is good. The very ill are rarely bored. They are too busy being ill. Only the well get bored.’
You’re bored, the voice inside her reminded her. Bored is good. He just said so. Do you remember when you were too terrified to be bored? What is that if not progress?
‘Dr Warriner!’ her mother interrupted a little too casually, with her father in tow. ‘You have not yet met my husband, have you?’
‘Your lordship.’ Joe bowed his dark head politely. ‘It is a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance.’
‘I was curious to meet the man behind the infirmary my daughter is wedded to.’ Her father looked the doctor up and down, assessing his worthiness, and to Bella’s mind he did not approve of what he saw. ‘It seems I must thank you for coming to her rescue the other day. Bella speaks very highly of your skills as a physician.’
‘She does?’ Those fathomless blue eyes regarded her with amusement and she blushed crimson to the tips of her toes. Subtlety was never her father’s strong suit and he had rather given the impression she had been waxing lyrical, which perhaps she had once or twice when she regaled her day to her family over dinner. It was splendid to be doing something again. Especially something as useful and important as healing.
‘I’ve been telling my parents about Tom’s tonsils and...’ Perhaps it was better not to try to explain and simply brush it off, except she couldn’t muster the nonchalance to brush it off when he was still smiling at her, so she clamped her mouth shut instead.
Always so benevolent, Dr Warriner finished her sentence for her. ‘And I hope you have also told them how your swift intervention prevented him from going downhill. I was detained with another patient and your daughter single-handedly brought down the poor lad’s fever. By the time I arrived, the crisis had passed and he was already on the path to recovery.’
Both of her parents gaped at her. ‘You did?’
Once upon a time they would have expected her resourcefulness. It was a stark reminder of how far she had fallen in a year that they were both astounded and pathetically grateful to see some remnants of their old daughter return. It made Bella even more self-conscious than she was already. ‘I only brewed some willow bark tea.’
‘I fear I must contradict you there, my lady.’ Kind blue eyes were even more amused. ‘She sent to my surgery for a precise concoction of herbs to ease the child’s distressing symptoms. I was mightily impressed with her knowledge of medicine.’
Her mother was now completely beside herself with joy, reading far too much into a silly potion than the thing warranted. As if being able to remember a few herbs would somehow return her to her old self. Her father was positively scowling. How she wished they would all stop staring at her. ‘Bella has always had a very scientific mind. Had she been born male, I have no doubt she would have been the most dedicated and brilliant of scholars.’ Her father disapproved of her ‘hobby’ but had allowed it in Retford while she ‘convalesced’, even though he had decreed that daughters of earls were not supposed to get their hands dirty. He was, however, prepared to indulge her for the duration of the summer whilst she was out of sight in Retford to see if industry reaped better rewards than the water treatments and bloodletting.
‘If you’ll pardon me for saying it, sir, your daughter is a dedicated and brilliant scholar. Anyone who is familiar with the recent writings of Dr Laennec has a knowledge of medicine which exceeds that of the average layman.’ Things her father would be mortified to hear. Dr Warriner began to rifle in his coat pocket. ‘Which reminds me, I brought you this, Lady Isabella.’ He handed her a wooden stethoscope. ‘This was the original one I had made, but it is far too dainty for my enormous hands and I thought you might like it.’
Bella supposed most girls would melt if a man gave her flowers, but the exquisitely turned medical instrument was more beautiful to her than a bouquet of a thousand crimson roses. A funny little nerve jumped in her tummy and her heartbeat was so fast and so loud in her own head she doubted anyone would need a stethoscope to hear it. ‘I don’t know what to say... Thank you... I shall treasure it.’
Her parents shared a knowing look and instantly Bella wished the floor would open up and swallow her whole. Her father was clearly both concerned and horrified in equal measure. They were reading things into this innocent exchange which were not there. Dr Warriner was being nice and respected her mind. Just as she respected his mind...except there was so much more she was coming to like about him.
‘There you are, Dr Warriner!’ Clarissa sailed towards them and his eyes swivelled automatically. She threaded an arm through his possessively. ‘You did promise to dance with me, did you not?’
‘I did.’ Apparently, Bella was now forgotten, which was probably just as well. She had no place having fanciful thoughts about a man when being alone with one of them terrified her and the thought of being touched by one was quite repellent. Although Dr Warriner’s touch hadn’t been exactly that. If at all.
‘I pencilled you in for the waltz, which is the next dance. Isn’t it a good job I found you in time?’ As she led him away, clamped to him like a barnacle to the hull of a ship, Clarissa briefly turned back and smiled, letting Bella know the handsome doctor had been stolen away on purpose—because she could steal him, or any other man for that matter, away. Ever since she had been lauded as the Incomparable of the previous Season, Clarissa had become preoccupied with her own attractiveness. She had to be the prettiest girl in any room and all the handsome men, even the untitled ones, had to want to fall at her graceful feet. Dr Warriner was yet another willing conquest, something Bella suddenly found irritating.
Her father seemed fit to burst. ‘I shall be having words with Clarissa. I do not approve of her dancing with that man. I’ve heard dreadful stories about that family—and we already know about his brother’s antics in London. Jacob Warriner is a shocking rake and, if the locals are to be believed, the elder two are no better. Both tricked innocent girls into marriage. The Reverend Reeves lost his daughter after one of them seduced her. Father and daughter are now quite estranged as her husband cruelly keeps them apart. He told me so himself just a few minutes ago.’ The stick-thin vicar was stood piously in the corner, clutching his tattered Bible, silently but obviously disapproving of the dancing. ‘There is also talk the eldest abducted his wife to get his hands on her fortune. How else would such a man come to marry the Tea Heiress?’
Bella glanced across the room to the group of laughing Warriners. The wives appeared very happy with their husbands. The two women and their men could not look more besotted if they tried, and after Dr Bentley’s scandalous refusal to attend to Tom, Bella was inclined to be on the family’s side rather than the humourless vicar’s. ‘There are as many people here in Retford who would tell you the Warriners are good people. Dr Warriner runs a busy practice and the Countess of Markham runs the foundling home I have been volunteering in.’
‘That is as may be, but until I see tangible proof they are not as they have been reported, I should prefer it if my daughters maintained a safe distance. And that includes any and all dealings with Dr Warriner.’
Bella